History

 

Released in Japan in 1988, North America in 1989, and in Europe, Australasia, and other regions in 1990, the Genesis was Sega's entry into the 16-bit era of video game consoles. Due to the Genesis' head start, a larger library of games when compared to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System at the latter's release, and a lower price point, Sega was able to secure an estimated 60% of the American 16-bit console market by June 1992. Sega's advertising continued to position the Genesis as the "cooler" console, and at one point in its campaign, it used the term "blast processing" (the origin of which is an obscure programming trick on the console's graphics hardware) to suggest that the processing capabilities of the Genesis were far greater than those of the SNES. Even with the Genesis often outselling the Super NES at a ratio of 2:1, neither console could maintain a definitive lead in market share for several years, with Nintendo's share of the 16-bit machine business dipping down from 60% at the end of 1992 to 37% at the end of 1993, Sega accounting for 55% of all 16-bit hardware sales during 1994, and Donkey Kong Country paving the way for the Super NES to win a handful of the waning years of the 16-bit generation.

 

In Japan, Sega released the Mega Jet, a portable version of the Mega Drive designed for use on Japan Airlines flights. As a condensed version, the Mega Jet required a connection to a television screen and a power source. This unit later made its way to Japanese department stores and was released to the public on March 10, 1994. Media reaction to the Mega Jet speculated on its potential, that with a screen and the ability to run on batteries, the Mega Jet could be competitive in the handheld console market as the Game Gear had been. The design of the Nomad would later be based on the Mega Jet.

 

Planning to release a new handheld console as a successor to the Sega Game Gear, Sega originally intended to produce a system which was to feature a touchscreen interface, many years before the Nintendo DS. However, such technology was very expensive at the time, and the handheld itself was estimated to have a high cost. Instead, Sega chose to shelve the idea and release the Sega Nomad, a handheld version of the Genesis. The codename used during development was Project Venus. Eventually, the Nomad was released in October 1995, only in North America. According to former Sega of America research and development head Joe Miller, the Nomad was not intended to be the Game Gear's replacement, and believes that there was little planning from Sega of Japan for the new handheld.

 

By the end of 1995, Sega was supporting five different consoles: Saturn, Genesis, Game Gear, Pico, and the Master System, as well as the Sega CD and Sega 32X add-ons. In Japan, the Mega Drive had never been successful and the Saturn was beating Sony's PlayStation, so Sega Enterprises CEO Hayao Nakayama decided to force Sega of America to focus on the Saturn, executing a surprise early launch of the Saturn in early summer of 1995. While this made perfect sense for the Japanese market, it was disastrous in North America: the market for Genesis games was much larger than for the Saturn but Sega was left without the inventory or software to meet demand. As the Genesis fell, so too did the Nomad. With the handheld's late release several months after the launch of the Saturn, combined with the 1995 release of Pokémon for Nintendo's Game Boy, the Nomad suffered from its poorly timed launch. Due to Sega's decision to stop focusing on the Genesis in 1995, Nomad was unable to be successful. By 1999, the Nomad was being sold at less than a third of its original price. Final sales for the handheld are estimated at about 1 million units.